The history of the Bible (Improved version)

8/7/2019 The history of the Bible (Improved version)

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Do you know that the Bible we read

today didnt come to existence over a

night.? Generations of peoplecontributed their labor, knowledge and

even life.

Let me share with you the life story of

the Holy Bible,


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The Bible was written by more than 40

authors from different backgrounds,

over a period of 1600 years.(Approximately 1500 B.C 100 A.D) Yet

the Bible is infallible for the authors

were inspired by God.

Among the authors were,


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Paul an Apostle and a Jewish Rabbi

wrote sections of the Bible which are

known as Pauline epistles.

The Apostles and Jewish Rabbis,


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Luke the author of the book of Acts was

a professional Physician.

Physicians,


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Farmers ,Fruit growers and

Shepherds,

Amos was a fruit grower and a


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Its divided into 2 major parts

Old Testament&

New Testament


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The Old Testament was

written in Hebrew andAramaic.


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Contains 39 books. They are placed

under different categories according to

their content.

Category name Books placed under the category

Pentateuch/The Law Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

History Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I

Chronicles, II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

Poetry & wisdom Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon.

Major Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.

Minor Prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,

Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.


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A tip to remember

Inter-Testament period

You dont see a gap between Malachi the last book ofOT and Gospel of Matthew the first book of NT.

However do you know a silent period of 400 years

exists between the book of Malachi and the Gospel of

Matthew? God did not communicate with humans

during this long period.


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The New Testament waswritten in Greek.


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Category name Books placed under the category

The Gospels and Acts Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.

Pauline epistles Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians,

Ephesians,, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II

Thessalonians, I Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon.

General Epistles and

Revelation

Hebrews, James, I Peter, II Peter, I John, II John, III John,

Jude, Revelation.

Contains 39 books. They are placed

under different categories according to

their content.


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Bef re t e Pri ti Pr ess s i ented, t e

Bi le was c ied by hand. It was c ied very

acc rately, by s ecial scribes who developed

intricate methods to ens re that no errors had


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The Gutenberg Bible,

The Bible is the first book ever printed. It was printed by Johann

Gutenberg from Germany in year 1455. Therefore it was called

the Gutenberg Bible (Shown in the background).


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Ancient manuscripts of the Bible

These manuscripts plays a major role in translation work and scholarly studies. Letstake look at the ancient manuscripts discovered so far.

The 1st discovery

This was between 1629

and 1947.Serveral of theoldest copies of the

Bible were found.

Codex Alexandrinus

This was between 1629

and 1947.Serveral of theoldest copies of the

Bible were found.

Codex Sinaiticus

(Earliest complete copy

of the NT copied in AD350) is found in St.

Catherines monastery

near mount Sinai

Codex Vaticanus

(The Earliest and

probably best copy

known of the NT from

AD 325) It was released

to scholars in 1889 by

the Vatican library.


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The fragment of ascroll found from

the cave.

One of the Qumrancaves

Ancient manuscripts: The Dead sea

scrolls,The oldest manuscripts of theBible, found so far. They were

discovered between 1947-1956 in

eleven caves in and around the

Wadi Qumran near the ruins of the

ancient settlement of Khirbet

Qumran, on the north west shore

of the dead sea.

These scrolls mostly in parchments

date back to 150BC to 70CE.

Among them scroll of Isaiah is the

most popular segment.

The text perfectly matched Whenthe modern copies of the Hebrew

Bible was compared against the

text in the scrolls. Which indicates

the accuracy of scribes who copied

the text.


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The Bible is the book with the highest

number of translations. Lets take a

look at the major translations and

their contributors.

The earliest translations were done

between AD 200-300. However these

were not in English. They were

available in,

1. Latin

2. Coptic (Egypt)

3. Syriac (Syria)

Major translations

Early Coptic translation


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A tip to remember

The Apocrypha.These books were omitted from the

Bible, as they are not inspired by

God.

1 Esdras

2 Esdras

Tobit

Judith

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

Ecclesiasticus

The Rest of Esther

The Apocrypha continued,The Wisdom of Solomon

Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah

The Song of the Three Holy Children

The History of Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

The Prayer of Manasses


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A tip to remember: Canonicity

Canonicity is a kind of measuring rod used to

determine whether or not a book of the Bible is truly

inspired by God? The checklist used by the canonicity

is shown below.1. APOSTOLOCITY: Was it written by an apostle or

his amanuensis (secretary)?

2. RECEPTION: Was it accepted by the early churchfathers?

3. CONSISTENCY: Does it agree with the teachings

of Christ and known Scripture?


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Major translations: Latin Vulgate

Jerome started

translating scripture

into Latin in AD 410and finished 25 years

later. This version

was called the LatinVulgate.


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Major translations: Wycliffe Bible

This is the First English Bible.Translated from Latin in 1382,

and is called The Wycliffe

Bible in honor of priest and

Oxford scholar John Wycliffe.

Wycliffe always wanted the

common people to read the

Bible. This Bible was banned

and burned.

40 years after Wycliffes death,

his bones were exhumed and

burnt for heresy.


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Major translations: Martin

Luthers work

Martin Luther, a

Roman Catholic

Monk translated the

New Testament in toGerman in 1522.


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Major translations: Translation by

William Tyndale,

William Tyndale is called the father of the

English Bible because his translations has laid

the foundation to the King James version.

He was a priest and a scholar. In 1525,translated the NT from Greek to English

(without the kings approval). Therefore he

moved to Germany and smuggled printed

Bibles into England from there.

In 1536 he was strangled and burnt at thestake. His last words were Lord, open the

king of Englands eyes.


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Major translations: The Coverdale Bible

This translation was done by Miles

Coverdale in year 1535 anddedicated to Anne Boleyn one of King

Henry VIIIs wives.

This is the first complete Bible to be

printed in English.


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Major translations: The Matthews Bible

John Rogers did this translation under the

pen name Thomas Matthew. It was the

first Bible published with Kings permission

(1537). Printed just one year after

Tyndales death. Its New Testament relied

heavily on Tyndales work, and even has atribute to him on the last page of the Old

Testament. Tyndales initials were printed

in 2 inch block letters.

Later Thomas Cromwell the advisor to

king Henry VIII entrusted Coverdale to

revise Matthews Bible to make the Great

Bible. (In 1539 the Great Bible was placed

in every church by the order of Thomas

Cranmer Arch Bishop under King Henry

VIII. It was chained to the church pillars to

Tyndales initials

John Rogers


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Major translations: King James Version

This translation was carried out by 6

(a total of 54 individuals) teams of

scholars under the commission of

KingJ

ames I of England (Left handside).

They used the Tyndales and

Bishops Bibles and early Hebrew

and Greek manuscripts as well.

It was completed in 1611 (a page from 1611 version is shown above), and was

called the authorized version as well, though the king never gave his royal

permission for the new translation.

It was revised several times. The edition we use today was revised in 1769. It

remained the most popular Bible for more than 300 years.


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Modern TranslationsThe knowledge received form newly discovered old manuscripts has led to hundreds of new

translations.Year Translation Description

1885 The English Revised version A British revisionofthe KJV Bible

1901 American Standard version (ASV) Revision ofKJV in American English

1926 Moffatt Bible A very popularmodernlanguageversion

1931 Smith-Goodspeed, An Americantranslation. Uses modern American English

1952 The Revised Standard version(RSV)

A revised versionofASV. Its NT wasrevisedin 1971

1958 J.B. Philips NT in modern English A paraphrase originally madeforyouth

1965 The Amplified Bible Uses word-to-word ASV withadded wordstocommunicate

insightsonoriginaltext.

1966 The Jerusalem Bible Translatedby RC scholars. New Jerusalem Biblein 1985

1970 New English Bible Timeless modern English. Revisedin 1989

1970 New American Bible (NAB) Officialversion ofCatholics. Revisedits NT in 1986

1971 New American Standard Bible Literal word forwordtranslation. Updatedin 1995

1971 The Living Bible Popular paraphrase

1976 The Good News Bible (Todays

English version)

VernacularEnglishtranslation


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Modern TranslationsThe knowledge received form newly discovered old manuscripts has led to hundreds of new

translations.

Year Translation Description

1978 New International version Dignified, readable

1982 New King James version Modernized versionofKJV (Same manuscripts wereused)

1989 Jewish New Testament Englishtranslationusingtraditional Jewish expressions

1989New Revised Standard version Genderneutralversionofthe RSV

1991 Contemporary English version Natural,uncomplicated English

1995 Gods Word Contemporary English

1996 New Living Translation A revisionofThe Living Bibleto makeitatranslation

1996 New International Readers version

(NIRV)

A simplifiedversionofNIV with 3rd or4th gradereadinglevel.

2001 English Standard version (ESV) Literalupdateofthe RSV

2001 Todays New International version(TNIV) (New Testament)

A modernizedversionofthe NIV

2002 The Message (MSG) A paraphrasefrom theoriginal languages

2004 Holman Christian Standard Bible

(HCSB)

Balancedbetween wordforwordandthoughtforthought


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The End

Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away. But

my word will last forever

Some people attempted to keep the world from

reading the Bible. Others made efforts to destroy it

forever. Yet centuries after it has become the book

with the highest selling rate.

The history of the Bible (Improved version)

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